Favored

At the beginning of the mao hour, the sky was still dark. In the bedchamber of Xuanzheng Hall, only a guttering candle burned on the low table, its dim light barely outlining the imperial bed.

De'an tapped softly on the door from outside. There was no response. He waited another moment before pushing the door open a crack and slipping in sideways. Two young eunuchs followed him with a bronze basin and cloths, their footsteps as light as cats treading on cotton.

On the imperial bed, the bright yellow brocade quilt lay in a heap. Qi Xiao was already awake, leaning against the headboard with one hand braced on the bed and the other pinned beneath Qi Yu. Qi Yu was curled up entirely under the quilt, with only half his face showing, his lips pressed against his imperial father's forearm. His drool had dampened a small patch of the nightclothes there. He slept deeply, his breathing soft and long, his eyelashes utterly still.

Qi Xiao tried to draw his arm out. He had moved it an inch when Qi Yu frowned in his sleep, reached after it with both hands, and hugged it, pressing his face closer. Qi Xiao stopped.

De'an stood beside the bed with his eyes lowered, holding the bronze basin steady. The young eunuchs behind him bowed their heads even lower. Qi Xiao waited a little longer, then used his free hand to gently pry Qi Yu's fingers loose one by one. His movements were very slow. Qi Yu's hands were limp; once opened, they closed again, grasping at empty air before finally hugging the quilt. Qi Xiao withdrew his hand and flexed his wrist. That arm had been pinned for most of the night, and a ring of red marks encircled his wrist.

He got out of bed and stepped barefoot onto the footstool. The two young eunuchs hurried forward, one kneeling to offer his shoes while the other unfolded his dragon robe. Qi Xiao spread his arms and let them dress him in his court robes. As they fastened his belt, the bronze buckle gave an exceedingly faint click. De'an immediately glanced back at the bed. The brocade quilt stirred. Qi Yu rolled over and buried his face in the cotton pillow, mumbling something. It was indistinct, sounding like "Imperial Father," or perhaps "Daddy." Then he went still again.

Qi Xiao gestured to De'an. Understanding, De'an sent the two young eunuchs out to the outer room. He stayed to arrange the emperor's crown. The comb passed through his hair with barely a sound, and the gold crown was fastened just as quietly. Qi Xiao glanced into the bronze mirror and straightened the pin in his crown himself.

"Let him sleep." Qi Xiao kept his voice so low that only De'an could hear. "He has no lessons today. He can sleep as long as he likes. Have breakfast ready. The almond cream and osmanthus cake must both be hot."

De'an murmured his assent. Qi Xiao took two steps toward the door, then stopped and looked back at the bed. Qi Yu's drool had soaked a small patch of the cotton pillow, and the faded embroidery at its corner looked pale in the morning light. Beside it, his own brocade pillow had been pushed to the edge of the bed, sitting crookedly, another inch from falling off. Qi Xiao walked over and pushed the brocade pillow inward a little, leaving it as a barrier along the edge. Then he turned and walked out.

At the bedchamber doorway, De'an lifted the curtain. Qi Xiao stepped through, his footfalls soundless. The hem of his dragon robe swept over the threshold and disappeared at the end of the covered corridor.

The bedchamber fell quiet again. Outside, the sky turned from dark gray to light gray, then from light gray to fish-belly white. The light filtering through the window paper grew brighter, illuminating every detail of the five-clawed dragons embroidered on the bed curtains. Birds began calling in the courtyard. At first there were only a few scattered cries, then a whole flock chattering, as though they had summoned all the sparrows of autumn.

When the birds woke Qi Yu, his hand reached out before his eyes opened. He felt beside him. The brocade pillow was still there, but it was cold. He pulled it into his arms and felt around for a long while, finding the stretch of sheet where his imperial father had slept. That was cold too. He opened one eye, looked at the empty space beside him, then pushed the pillow aside and lay on his back, blinking up at the canopy.

Sunlight slipped through the gaps in the bed curtains and fell in patches across the quilt.

A Ping had been waiting outside the door for almost four hours. He sat on the ground against a corridor pillar, a food box resting on his knees. Inside were almond cream and osmanthus cake, both wrapped in cotton cloth to keep them warm. Chun He had changed the hot water she brought three times, carrying it back to reheat whenever it cooled. Only when the sun had risen above the treetops did a muffled call finally come from inside.

"A Ping."

A Ping sprang up, brushed the dust from his backside, and pushed the door open. Qi Yu sat on the bed with the quilt piled around his waist, his hair sticking out every which way and the weave of the pillowcase still imprinted on his right cheek. One foot poked out from under the quilt, its toes wiggling. Seeing A Ping enter, he stretched, then stopped halfway with his arms above his head. "What time is it?"

"Your Highness, it is almost the si hour." A Ping set the food box on the table and took out the still-steaming almond cream. "His Majesty has gone to court. Before leaving, he said you had no lessons today and could sleep as long as you liked."

Qi Yu took the almond cream and spooned some into his mouth. It had half the usual sugar and a rich almond flavor. He reached for an osmanthus cake and took a bite. It was still soft, and the sugar crystals crunched and melted in his mouth. Chewing the cake, he asked indistinctly, "When did Imperial Father leave?"

"He rose at the beginning of the mao hour. You were sleeping soundly when he left, Your Highness, and His Majesty would not let us wake you."

Qi Yu took another bite of osmanthus cake, chewing slowly. He looked down at the half-eaten cake in his hand. A dried osmanthus blossom was embedded in its golden surface. He remembered the way his imperial father had looked at him in the candlelight last night, the feeling of that hand slowly combing through his hair, and the last words he had heard before falling asleep: "Go to sleep." He stuffed the remaining half of the cake into his mouth, his cheeks bulging.

"Did Imperial Father not sleep well last night?" After finishing his mouthful, he licked the sugar crystals from the corner of his mouth.

A Ping was pouring him tea, and his hand paused. "This servant does not know. But I saw my godfather De'an rubbing his eyes under the corridor this morning. Perhaps he got up several times during the night too."

Qi Yu finished the last mouthful of almond cream and set the bowl on the table. "Imperial Father never sleeps well when he sleeps with me. I toss and turn and keep stealing the quilt. Last winter, I stole his quilt, and his voice was hoarse when he went to court the next day. Eunuch De'an told me." He paused, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and spat a tea leaf back into the cup. "But Imperial Father still lets me come."

A Ping said nothing. He took Qi Yu's clothes from the stand and shook them out. It was a crimson everyday robe with rabbit-fur cuffs and a small jade pendant attached to the belt. Qi Yu got out of bed and let A Ping help him into it. As A Ping fastened his belt, he looked down at the hands busy at his waist and suddenly said, "A Ping, do you think I cling to Imperial Father too much?"

A Ping looked up and smiled. "You have clung to His Majesty since you were little, Your Highness. It hardly started today."

A Ping finished fastening his belt, stepped back, and looked him up and down. The robe fit well, its crimson color bringing out the healthy flush in the boy's face. He bent down to straighten Qi Yu's boots and said, "You are different from the Second and Third Princes, Your Highness."

"How am I different?"

A Ping opened his mouth. He wanted to say that the Second and Third Princes had not been raised by His Majesty's side. He wanted to say that His Majesty looked at him differently from the other princes. He wanted to say, did he think just anyone in this palace could sleep in Xuanzheng Hall until the sun was high? But in the end, he only said, "This servant cannot quite put it into words. You are simply different."

Qi Yu glanced at him and did not press further. Of course he knew how he was different. He had known since he was little. At two, he had crawled all over Xuanzheng Hall, stacking the memorials on the imperial desk like building blocks. At three, he had wet the imperial bed, soaking the entire mattress, and had still been laughing when his imperial father picked him up. At five, he had caught smallpox, and his imperial father had kept watch for three days and nights without closing his eyes. At seven, he had told his imperial father he wanted to see the lantern festival outside the palace. His imperial father had refused, and he had cried. He cried for two hours before his imperial father finally changed into ordinary clothes, carried him out through a side gate of the palace, and spent the entire night looking at lanterns in the streets. On the way back, he had fallen asleep in his imperial father's arms, still clutching a paper rabbit lantern.

He remembered all these things clearly. He knew he was favored. Everyone in the palace knew he was favored. The cooks in the Imperial Kitchen would deliberately use half a spoonful less salt because the Fourth Prince preferred mild flavors. When making clothes, the Wardrobe Bureau would first send the designs to Yuning Hall for him to choose, because the Fourth Prince liked things plain and simple. Whenever De'an went to the Imperial Pharmacy for medicinal ingredients, he would take an extra portion of goji berries because the Fourth Prince was prone to excess internal heat in autumn. None of this had been ordered by his imperial father. But they all knew that treating the Fourth Prince well meant treating His Majesty well.

Qi Yu stood before the bronze mirror and looked at himself. The person in the mirror had his hair neatly arranged, secured with the Qilin White Jade Hairpin. His clothes fit well, his complexion was rosy, and a single grain of sugar still clung to the corner of his mouth. He stuck out his tongue and licked it off.

"A Ping."

"This servant is here."

"Am I very favored?"

A Ping looked at him in the mirror. After a moment's thought, he said, "Your Highness, you are favored. You are... you are the one His Majesty cherishes most. Everyone in the palace knows it."

Qi Yu looked into the mirror for a while and smoothed the rabbit fur at his cuffs. "I know." He lowered his sleeves and turned toward the door. "Come on. Let's feed the rabbit."

In the side hall of Yuning Hall, the gray rabbit was nestled in its cage, gnawing on a carrot. The Imperial Kitchen had delivered the carrots that morning, selecting the two most tender ones and washing them thoroughly. The rabbit crunched away. At the sight of Qi Yu, its ears twitched, then it lowered its head and continued gnawing, showing no intention of paying him any attention.

Qi Yu crouched and poked the rabbit's ear with a finger. "You certainly have a good life. Someone brings you carrots every day, and someone cleans your cage. You don't have to do anything but eat and sleep."

The rabbit finished the last bite of its carrot and lifted its front paws to wash its face. Qi Yu crouched beside it, watching for a while, then took another carrot from the dish nearby and slipped it into the cage. The rabbit lowered its head, sniffed it, and began gnawing again.

"Go on, eat." Qi Yu stood and brushed the crumbs from his hands. "It isn't as though you have to attend court, do homework, or think about so many things."

Listening beside him, A Ping kept feeling that his prince was not talking only about the rabbit. But he did not ask. He pulled out the paper lining the bottom of the cage and replaced it with a fresh sheet, then filled the water bowl.

Sunlight shone through the side hall's window and fell on the rabbit's gray fur. Qi Yu stretched. The movement set the jade pendant at his waist jingling. He looked down at it. His imperial father had given it to him on his birthday last year. His imperial father had turned thirty-two that year. On the evening of his imperial father's birthday, Qi Yu had secretly hidden a bowl of longevity noodles he had made himself in Xuanzheng Hall. He had asked a cook from the Imperial Kitchen to teach him how to roll out the noodles. When his imperial father ate them, his chopsticks had paused for a long time. Then his imperial father had called him over, untied this jade pendant from his own waist, and hung it at Qi Yu's. Qi Yu looked down at the pendant at his waist and reached out to trace its carved patterns. The jade was warm against his clothes, already imbued with his body heat.

"Come on, let's go to the Eastern Palace," Qi Yu suddenly said. A Ping was changing the rabbit's water and looked up. "What are you going to the Eastern Palace for, Your Highness?"

"To see my brother, the Crown Prince. I wore the wrist guards he gave me last time for a few days, and my wrists no longer ache. I'll return them to him. And see whether he has any new travel accounts of the south." As he spoke, Qi Yu had already stepped out of the side hall.

A Ping hurried after him, still holding the cloth he had used to wipe the rabbit's cage. He thrust it into a young eunuch's hands nearby and jogged to catch up with Qi Yu. The boy walked ahead with light steps, the wind sending the crimson hem of his robe fluttering behind him. From the back, his shoulders looked broader than last year, and he had shot up in height as well. A Ping suddenly realized that his prince was no longer the little dumpling who had toddled unsteadily after His Majesty.